San Marcos man pleads guilty to online movie piracy

Angelica Martinez

A San Marcos man pleaded guilty Wednesday to using the Internet to distribute a pirated copy of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” in violation of federal copyright law.

Owen Moody, 25, entered the plea in Los Angeles federal court. The U.S. rights to the movie under copyright are owned by Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., which is based in Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney officials said in a news release.

The felony charge for uploading copyrighted work carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Moody is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5.

Moody admitted to uploading a copy of the movie to the Web site thepiratebay.org. At the time, the movie was still in limited release in U.S. theaters and had not yet been released on DVD.

The 2008 British film won eight Oscars in February, including best picture and best director.

Authorities said Moody used the screen names “Tranceyo” and “Gizmothekitty” and uploaded the movie from a Web site called funfile.org. The digital copy of the movie had been sent to a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be screened and voted on by its members for the Oscars, officials said.

U.S. Secret Service agents investigated the case. Officials said Moody uploaded the copy for public use and linked the digital file on two other sites to be more available by the general public.